Every evening when you turn on your TV and navigate to your (once) favourite news channels, you can hear a familiar screaming. It might be an Arnab or a Rajdeep or a Navika. And although you might’ve a problem with their vocal inflections, deep inside, you know that they’re a human. Soulless? Maybe. But human, nonetheless.

According to Xinhua Net, China debuted the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) news anchor at the fifth World Internet Conference in east China’s Zhejiang Province.

Apparently, this AI news anchor’s face is based off of an actual news anchor. But it alters “his” voice, facial expressions and actions through its programming. “He” learns from live broadcasting and can read texts as naturally as you and I can. As of now, “he” has become a member of Xinhua’s reporting team and has the capability to work 24 hours a day on its official website and other social media platforms.

Netizens were startled by this upgrade to news anchoring. While some sounded interested, others were worried about how it might be used to peddle fake news.

1. Maybe that journalist’s already been converted.

Who's that journalist who said our jobs were not at risk….yet? Hehehe. The revolution might actually be televised. 😅 @XHNews' first English AI anchor makes debut. pic.twitter.com/YRJozMNsGg

3. This is taking creepy to another level.

4. The thing is, we won’t be able to spot the difference.

A new level in #FakeNews this is for sure!Term it as next breakthrough or whatever, this will sure be use up to fulfill sick individual's personal motives and ambitions in ways no one had ever predicted. https://t.co/4BvFeim7p3

10. Here we are now.

A few months ago, Bloomberg released a video talking about deep fake videos, where it was almost impossible to determine if it was real or fake. And while we should’ve fought to make the system more robust, it looks like China has taken a different route under the garb of protecting their cyber-space. But what do you think? Is this dangerous or a necessary change?